Roku shares jumped as much as 7.4% to $349.98 in premarket trading on Thursday, after agreeing to carry AT&T Inc.’s HBO Max. The deal allows AT&T to potentially reach millions of new subscribers who couldn’t previously access HBO Max via Roku boxes.
- As part of the deal, Roku will not sell HBO Max subscriptions through its channel since it would prevent WarnerMedia from seeing valuable user data.
- WarnerMedia also agreed to give Roku a cut of the advertising inventory in an upcoming ad-supported version of HBO Max.
- Without the deal, HBO Max would have missed an opportunity to use the excitement around the film premiere to sign up more Roku users.
- About 12.6 million subscribers have activated HBO Max accounts since the service launched in late May, while Roku has about 46 million active accounts.
- Roku is also a powerful marketer and uses its home screen to advertise upcoming movies.
- Analysts project getting HBO Max on Roku would double its addressable market.
- Roku’s platform segment is projected to benefit from the deal next year when HBO Max offers an advertising-supported pricing tier.
- The fight over HBO Max was one of many that Roku prioritized recently as its customer base grows and it tries to generate more revenue from selling ads inside streaming apps.
AT&T stock is currently declining as Roku gains. T: NYSE is down 0.099%, ROKU: NASDAQ is up 6.53%
